For th e purposes of this review, stroke services are considered toinclude all services responsible f or providing acute and follow-upcare to stroke and TIA patients. Stroke services exist as part of diverse healthcare systems, with specific treatment goals varyingaccording to national clinical guidelines. Acute stroke services in-clude organised inpatient (stroke unit) care and specialist TIA clin-ics (RCP 2012; Stroke Unit Trialists’ Collaboration 2013). Rec-ommendations for secondary prevention can be initiated as partof a co-ordinated treatment pr ogramme during acute hospitali-sation (Ovbiagele 2004). However, primary care services are wellplaced to monitor patient risk factors, encourage lifestyle ch angeand review secondary prevention medications on an ongoing ba-sis (RCP 2012). Primary care aims to be characterised by person-centredness, comprehensiveness, continuity of care and commu-nity participation (Starfield 2002; WHO 2008). Social care ser-vices and voluntary sector organisations can also work in partner-ship with pr imary care to deliver healthy living support (NAO2005). Stroke service interventions are termed complex interven-tions since the y often contain several interacting components andmay require complex behaviours, organisational change or the as-sessment of numerous outcome measures